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You don't need as much gain as you think. Most of the time more gain just mushes things out. Makes the notes indistinct. Plus, with all the compression you get from that much gain, every little thing you do with the guitar comes out, often nearly as loud as the parts you wanted.

There's a big difference between playing by ones self and fitting into a live or recorded mix. Less gain will sound just as gainy with the band, only clearer.

Metal Muff is the best one I've tried and if you want the super scooped Nu-metal sound the MXR Fullbore Metal pedal is the one to go with. Like somebody already said, throwing a overdrive in front of a distortion pedal (or Amp distortion) works really well also (ala Zakk Wylde).

You don't need as much gain as you think. Most of the time more gain just mushes things out. Makes the notes indistinct. Plus, with all the compression you get from that much gain, every little thing you do with the guitar comes out, often nearly as loud as the parts you wanted.

There's a big difference between playing by ones self and fitting into a live or recorded mix. Less gain will sound just as gainy with the band, only clearer.

I find myself giving this advice a lot on the forum. A good mid range push without a more moderate gain setting will sit better. Use feel and composition to make it sound heavy. Reading about Dimebag Darrell's setup back in the days of Pantera is a good instruction on this.

I find myself giving this advice a lot on the forum. A good mid range push without a more moderate gain setting will sit better. Use feel and composition to make it sound heavy. Reading about Dimebag Darrell's setup back in the days of Pantera is a good instruction on this.

If its for recording purposes, just be careful as more often than not extra gain just ends up sounding extra mushy. Your guitars will lose note definition and clarity with too much gain.

A heavy live guitar sound rarely equates to a heavy recording sound. IME its the bass guitar and kick & snare drums that bring the heaviness to a track. Might sound a bit "wimpy" on their own, but often less gain gives a better overall mix.

Anyways, as for pedals, Ibanes TubeScreamer is great for pushing tube amps. Digitechs Bad Monkey pedal is great also. Dont let its low price fool you, it is a very diverse and great sounding pedal.

My personal opinion: none. The majority are way too buzzy and thin. For recording and using an existing head/cab I would look into used preamps like Mesa Studio Pre, ADA MP1, Marshall JMP, Rocktron, etc. You can find some of these for less than the cost of boutique pedals. Most preamps will also give you the equalization needed for metal guitar. Best bet would be to run the guitar into pre and out to amp's fx return.

I never found a pedal that could give me the gain and low end chunk that a preamp could give me. Some have come close (HK Warp) but I'd still go the preamp route. Then again, there are tons of pedals out there and I certainly haven't tried them all.

But the Super Sport has Tone control on the outside.
But the inside has Pres, Mid, Bass, Harmonics, and Note shape control which is nice.
The Note shape can as it's named change the shape of the front of the note.. So it can give a different feeling like a different string gauge.

I will say haven't ever had anyone one call our Barber pedals thin or fizzy/buzzy.

But I have heard plenty over the years that do have that.. But there are a lot of good units out there now a days.

I used to have a bunch of pedals until I got a Marshall JMP-1. I can't recommend it enough (especially for driving lower-gain amps). I would generally say stay away from the pedals, but the Suhr Riot is amazing! If I was going for the stompbox solution, that would be my choice.

Saying that I would only use these to subtly "push" a great sounding amp. I would never rely solely on a pedal to get my sound (say through a clean channel on an amp). I tend to steer well clear of metalzone type pedals as they try to create the whole sound....

My absolute favourite at the moment I have to say though is the Seymour Duncan pickup booster. I'll get the amp sounding great but with a bit less distortion than I want and just use the PB to push the amp into the right place. Really clean gain, doesn't pollute anything and makes any guitar really punch! Cheap too!

Marshall Jackhammer http://www.guitartoneoverload.com/20...ll-jackhammer/ I run this through to a '76 fender champ and it's the most musical heavy sound you can imagine. Great control over eq and drive with nice creamy mids. And it's built like a tank on top of that.

I'm a fan of a tube screamer in front of a nice high gain amp. I'd start with one of those and see where it gets you with your current amp... If all else fails it's still a killer pedal. See if you can find one second hand.

If you don't mind spending a little more, the Keeley mods (www.robertkeeley.com/) are really nice. I own a tube screamer and MT2 that have his mods on them. Between these and my amps I can get just about everything I want.